Wanted: Tough Visionary To Lead Nation's Largest District

The seven-member panel expected to be named late last week to assist
the New York City Board of Education's search for a new chancellor will
face a difficult mandate: recruiting a visionary leader who can correct
the failures of the country's largest school system and shape it into
"a model for the nation."

Observers agree that the announcement last month by Nathan Quinones
that he would retire from the chancellorship by Jan. 1 offers the board
a fresh opportunity to address the district's numerous and persistent
problems.

"But if people are looking for a panacea and aren't willing to build
the structures needed to support real improvements," cautioned Stanley
Litow, executive director of the Education Priorities Panel, a local
coalition of advocacy groups, then a change in leadership "probably
won't be successful."

Key city leaders appear to concur that drastic changes must be made
in the administration of the 936,000-student system, whose shortcomings
have been the target of scathing criticism in recent months.

A blue-ribbon mayoral commission, for example, cited the system's
failure to educate a "shockingly large proportion" of its students.
School officials also drew fire when openings in summer-jobs programs
for students went unfilled. (See Education Week, Aug. 5, 1987.)

Robert F. Wagner Jr., president of the board of education and a
close4political ally of Mayor Edward I. Koch, has long urged that the
system "move aggressively" to reform the management structure and
bureaucratic procedures that "for decades have made it difficult for
the system to address the needs of many of its students."

Mr. Wagner has said he will ask the search committee to accept the
additional task of recommending ways to streamline the system's
management structure.

Quinones Faulted

Critics had questioned whether Mr. Quinones, who has worked as an
administrator in the city schools for most of his 30-year career,
possessed the political skills to satisfy the system's numerous
constituencies and at the same time move a cumbersome bureaucracy to
effect significant improvements in student achievement.

"In face of increasing evidence that ever-larger numbers of students
were not being educated appropriately, it became obvious that the
system needed substantial reform, and the chancellor was not doing
that,'' charged Norma Rollins, executive director of Advocates for
Children Inc., a prominent watchdog group.

Despite the district's troubles, Mr. Quinones is widely credited
with restoring stability and credibility in the wake of the city's
fiscal crisis and alleged improprieties by the previous schools chief,
Anthony J. Alvarado. In addition, even some of the chancellor's most
vocal critics acknowledge that his vigorous imple8mentation of state
programs raising minimum standards for schools helped expose the
deep-rooted nature of the problems the system faces.

In announcing Aug. 13 that he would step down six months before the
end of his current contract, Mr. Quinones said he had decided more than
a year ago to leave the post he has held since 1984. But he hinted that
his announcement had been precipitated by rising dissatisfaction with
his performance.

Noting that in a statement that he had intended to disclose his
retirement plans "early in the new school year," Mr. Quinones added
that "I have determined that it would be more appropriate to make that
announcement now."

One of the major actions the chancellor took shortly before his
announcement was the dismissal of Frank Smith, the head of the
high-schools division, which was responsible for oversight of the
failed summer-jobs effort.

Ironically, Mr. Smith--an education professor who was the first
person in recent memory drawn from outside the school bureaucracy to
head the high-schools division--had been widely praised for his reform
recommendations. He had proposed, for example, a radical restructuring
of the high-school admissions process, with the aim of allowing
disadvantaged students greater access to the city's better schools.

Longstanding Problems

Whoever succeeds Mr. Quinones will face a variety of
longstandingel10lproblems that have recently moved back into the
spotlight. Among the developments:

Promises of major funding from the state legislature and the
Municipal Assistance Corporation to improve the deteriorating condition
of many of the school system's facilities have been accompanied by
calls for significant reforms in the way the city's schools are
designed and built.

Felix Rohatyn, chairman of the mac, has said that release of the
$600 million that the state corporation has committed to a school
rebuilding program is contingent on a "rejuvenation of the leadership"
of the schools.

A report by two nonprofit advocacy groups and the Education Law
Project of Columbia University's law school has charged that the city's
10-year-old high-school-integration policy would be found
unconstitutional if challenged in court.

The report concluded that the board's policy of reserving 50 percent
of the spaces in certain "integrated" high schools for white students
"is not defensible" in a system whose minority enrollment exceeds 75
percent.

Although some school officials, including Mr. Smith, have reached
similar conclusions in recent years, observers say that increased
pressure from civil-rights groups may force the system's leaders to
come up with a way of amending the policy without further alienating
the dwindling numbers of white parents who choose to send their
children to public schools in the city.

A report released this summer by the state comptroller's office
charged that the unusual authority vested in school custodians to hire
their own workers had led to nepotism and held the potential to shield
many other abuses.

The report's scheduled release was delayed for a week, reportedly as
a sign of respect for Daniel F. Conlin, president of the school
custodians' union, who was found shot to death in his car near his
home. Although police have termed the shooting a "gangland-style
slaying," they have established no firm link between the killing and
Mr. Conlin's role as a school labor leader.

Deep Divisions

The advisory panel appointed by Mr. Wagner will have the formidable
task of forming a consensus among segments of the city that have often
been deeply divided during previous searches for a chancellor.

Already the New York Alliance of Black Educators has announced it
will lobby for the appointment of Adelaide L. Sanford, a black
administrator who is currently a member of the state board of regents.
And corporate leaders have said they want a chancellor who can forge a
lasting partnership between the city's businesses and its schools.

The search is expected to put a temporary hold on any new
initiatives in the district, although Mr. Wagner has indicated that he
would like to see many of the programs started under Mr. Quinones
continued by the new chancellor.

Ground Rules for Posting
We encourage lively debate, but please be respectful of others. Profanity and personal attacks are prohibited. By commenting, you are agreeing to abide by our user agreement.
All comments are public.